YATESVILLE — There are four words on the Twitter biography of Chris Cummings that tell the story of an unlucky athlete. The Pittston Area senior wrestler pokes fun at his misfortunes and the balky left knee that's repeatedly betrayed him.

It reads: "Tearing ACLs since 2011."

Cummings tore his left ACL twice while playing football during his sophomore and junior seasons. After tear number two, he quit football, rehabbed like a fiend, and nearly three years since his final junior high match, Cummings made his varsity wrestling debut last month at the Quakertown Duals.

He is the Patriots' starter at 182 pounds and placed fifth at the Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament earlier this month.

When asked about the torn ACLs, Cummings can recall the dates and circumstances without hesitation. The first one came on Nov. 4, 2011 during the Patriots' season finale against Wyoming Area.

"I ran down the field on a kickoff and was trying to tackle this kid named Ahmad Bowie," Cummings said. "I wrapped him up, my knee just twisted the wrong way, I felt a pop and felt the pain going straight through my leg. I just knew it wasn't something good."

He underwent surgery Jan. 26 of the following year and was cleared to return to football practice more than seven months later.

"Third day of doubles, second session, I actually got hit on the side and my knee popped," Cummings said. "As soon as I felt that pop, I knew I had torn it again."

Eleven months elapsed until he was medically cleared, although medically cleared does not mean healed.

A few times earlier this season, he'd be drilling with workout partner Ryan Joyce and the knee would start to flare up. Unable to hit moves that were once second nature, Cummings stormed out of the wrestling room in a huff.

He'd return 10 or 15 minutes later.

"He's definitely taken a leadership role," Pittston Area coach James Woodall said. "He's an extremely hard worker, one of the hardest workers you'll ever come across. That's kind of why I have faith that by the end of the year, he'll put it together and have a pretty good postseason."

Woodall knows a thing or two about blown out ACLs.

A former PIAA champion at Pittston Area, he tore his ACL as a fifth-year senior at Penn State and received a medical hardship waiver before returning for a sixth year.

"I think there's something valuable about that, about working hard, overcoming obstacles," Woodall said. "I kind of encouraged him to do that. And then of course you can get hurt, but you have to take that risk sometimes.

"The biggest thing is the psychological part that you're afraid you're going to do it again. You're afraid to shoot. You're afraid to push hard."

Cummings acknowledges the danger of wrestling on a twice-operated knee. Before his matches, he'll think about keeping the knee safe. But when he's on the mat in a close match, it's tunnel vision.

How do I take this guy down?

Can I make it to the end without collapsing from exhaustion?

Wrestling is a form of controlled chaos, even for an athlete with two healthy ACLs. But for a teenager with a twice-shredded knee, the question must be asked: Why in the world would he put the knee at risk for one season of wrestling?

"I don't know. My family always asks me the same thing," Cummings said. "'Why are you trying to put your knee on the line?' And I'm like, 'I don't know, I just love the sport and I just want to finish it off.' I didn't want to finish it off as a ninth-grader in junior high. I want to finish it off as a senior in high school seeing how far I can make it."

Cummings' misfortune has provided his teammates and friends with an arsenal of good-natured jokes.

"We always tell him to go out there and break a leg," senior 126-pounder Tyler Lutecki said before adding, "He's really determined to do what he wants to do. He sets his eyes on a goal and goes after it."

Whenever a professional athlete tears his ACL, the joke is that he "pulled a Chris Cummings."

"There always has to be that one person who looks at me and makes an ACL joke," Cummings said with a smile.

Cummings is all smiles now. He's back on the mat.

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